All You Need is Some Castle Cheer
by Griever11
Summary: One shot episode insert/Pre-ep for 7x10 Bad Santa. In the wee early hours of the morning, Castle and Beckett spend some quiet time with their Christmas tree.


Episode insert/Pre-ep for 7x10 Bad Santa. Enjoy!

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She's cold. It's the first thing she notices even before she cracks open her eyes. She's not used to being cold in the morning anymore, not since she started sharing a bed with Castle. Usually she's almost stifled by the heat emanating from her partner, cocooned in his warm embrace all night. They're both cuddlers - Castle was delighted when he found out _that_ little nugget – and it meant that the cold winter mornings were a lot easier to get through with him warming her up. Not this morning, apparently.

Groaning, she forces herself to get up and glances at the clock at her bed side table. She's momentarily confused. What the hell is Castle doing up at six in the morning? She isn't even on call. She swings her feet over the side of the bed and stumbles into her fuzzy slippers that Castle insisted on getting her. He wanted them to match and Beckett hadn't had the heart to refuse him.

"Castle?"

She doesn't hear a reply but a loud thump from somewhere in the loft tells her he's definitely lurking around.

"Castle, come back to bed," she implores, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. The man had thoroughly tired her out the night before, and then had wanted to cuddle and whisper sweet nothings into her ear for hours before eventually succumbing to sleep. How is he even awake, seriously?

"Don't be alarmed," Castle calls out from the living room and Beckett narrows her eyes.

"Castle," she warns, all too familiar with his childish shenanigans. "I swear if you got out of bed to prank me again, you're going to be in a whole world of – Castle, what –"

She stops short in her tirade as she sees what he's managed to set up in the living room. He's moved the furniture around to make space for a Christmas tree. The giant Christmas tree from the year before looms in front of her, undecorated but nonetheless still as impressive. Surrounding the big tree are multiple boxes of what she can only assume to contain Christmas decorations.

"Um, I told my guys to get these delivered here and they decided to come in early," Castle's head pokes out adorably from behind the imposing tree, hair disheveled, a slight sheen of sweat visible along his forehead. He's huffing from the exertion of having to move the tree and furniture around, but there's definitely a hint of pride and accomplishment in the grin he's bestowing upon her.

"I could have helped you," Beckett murmurs softly, padding silently to him.

He shakes his head and collapses on the couch just as she walks past it, pulling her down so she's nestled within his arms. "Nah, you were sleeping. I didn't want to wake you."

"Woke me up anyway, babe." She says softly, settling into his side still staring at the tree.

Castle seems to notice a sudden change in her demeanour, more pensive now, thoughtful even. He'll give her time. He's learned that she needed the time to articulate herself, put her thoughts in order before she told him what was on her mind. He's also learned that it was worth the wait. He'd wait forever for her, for his wonderful, extraordinary Beckett.

He curls an arm around her to pull her closer and she swats at him playfully. "Ew, Castle, you smell."

"You can shower with me later," he says without skipping a beat, although he notices she doesn't move away from him anyway. She's back to being silent and he starts to worry that maybe – just maybe, she still wasn't overly comfortable with the way the Castles celebrated Christmas.

"Hey, Kate – this … this is okay, right? I mean, last year you weren't too big on the festivities but I thought since –"

She cuts him off with a sloppy kiss to his cheek. "It's perfect, Rick. I just … It's been a while since I've put up a tree. You already had it all done last time and I guess being able to start doing this… with you, and your family, from scratch – it's nice. It's perfect."

"I'm glad. I didn't want to presume –"

"But you did anyway."

"Ha, yeah I guess I did," He chuckles into her hair. He points at the boxes littered across the room. "So these are the ornaments we usually put up, some from my childhood, some from Alexis'. Mostly though, just stuff we've accumulated over the years. I've got a train set in there somewhere. We put them up and write our poems -"

"Wait, what – poems?"

"Oh, uh. Don't worry about it, it's no big deal," he waves it off and continues to stroke her hair. "You'll get the full Castle experience this year, Mrs. Castle."

Beckett sighs happily at the moniker. He calls her that a lot when they're alone, like he still can't believe she's actually agreed to be his wife. She secretly likes that he does that, not that she'll ever tell him. They sit in comfortable silence for a few minutes before Beckett pulls away and turns to face him. She takes a breath and Castle knows she's about to spill whatever it was that had been on her mind.

"Um, can I - can I maybe call my dad and get him to bring some of our stuff over here? He could spend the day here with us and we can merge the Beckett and Castle traditions together? Dad hasn't really wanted to before, but I'm hoping maybe all he needs is a little Castle cheer?"

She's hesitant with her words, tentative and hopeful all at the same time. She lets a small smile grace her features, knowing the moment the words 'merge' and 'traditions' left her lips, that Castle would absolutely, one hundred per cent be okay with it. Why didn't she bring this up sooner?

"Oh Kate," Castle fixes her with the most glorious expression, a mix of bewilderment and joy, his grin so broad, eyes crinkling up in mirth. "Kate, you can tell him to bring anything and everything he wants to. You're my family. And Jim too. If you and your dad want to hang ornaments that baby Beckett made on our tree this year for the world to feast their eyes upon, I will not stand in the way of that."

He pulls her in for a sideways hug – it's awkward, but she basks in his delight anyway. She loves being able to make her man so happy. Being able to make her _husband_ happy. As the thought flits through her mind she realises that she's completely and utterly done for. He's turned her into a sappy romantic, so much so that the mere prospect of celebrating Christmas with his – her's too now – family was going to bring her to tears.

A yawn escapes her and she suddenly remembers that she'd only gotten four hours of sleep before being rudely awakened by the cold. Castle notices and untangles their limbs, pulling her up from the couch as he stands.

"I guess you wanna head back to bed? You look like you're about to fall asleep on me there," he takes her hand and caresses it, tugging slightly to get her moving.

Beckett nods, letting him lead her to their room. She gives the tree one last backward glance as she leaves the living room and smiles softly to herself.

Yeah, Christmas was going to be awesome this year.


End file.
